Circumference of Darkness is a very intelligent, high-tech thriller whose protagonists are super-geeks. You know you're in good hands from the initial Einstein quote, 'As the circle of light increases, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.' The villains are conspiracy theorists, the good guys soon join them, and by the end of this impossible to put down debut novel the reader is sold too.

Jeannie Reese, a twenty-two year old naive genius, has designed IRIN, the ultimate Big Brother surveillance system, for the US Department of Defense. It's launched immediately after 9/11, but then Jeannie is taken out of the loop and shut out in the cold. Just before this happens, IRIN helps her contact legendary computer hacker John Fagan (known on the net as Phr33k), whose casual chat room suggestion of a terrorist attack scenario against the US with planes was noted and acted upon, to his lasting guilt and dismay.

When Fagan is kidnapped by agents of a white supremacist organization with tendrils into the highest levels of power and direct links to terrorist organizations, Jeannie tracks him down electronically and dispatches her bodyguard, Navy SEAL Rob Vance, to his rescue. They then work together to foil Fagan's seemingly foolproof plan to create mass destruction and widespread panic, being implemented as a base for sociopolitical rebellion. It requires an effort of almost miraculous misdirection in Las Vegas and there are cliffhangers, plot twists - including an AI with a mind of its own - and violence right to the end.

Despite the improbability of its supergenius protagonists, this hefty tome held me spellbound with its fast-paced action, high-tech havoc, thrills, spills, and brushes with oblivion. If you're a thriller fan and/or a conspiracy theorist, don't miss Circumference of Darkness.

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